You know what? ,If you want my 10Cents worth I recon we get hold of a few of the old Ex-Army \"Rekkies\" Equip them with a few high powered sniper rifels & some serious trip wire type stuff & say \"Go Go fetch the bad people\" off the mountain & bring them to us I mean come on these guys trained & dedicated there lives to this kind of recon work They would be more than happy to go on a \"Mission\" Trust me My buddy is a \"rekkie\" who will happily volenteer to go fetch & retrieve or whatever the mission may be So So that is my 10cents worth what you guys think.We cannot lets thesee sods take over what is impportant to us & our Contry just because some Idiots are messing it up for others

QuickDraw: No offence, I just hope your buddies shoot better than you write otherwise we're in for some serious collateral damage. So so get of that tik tik and go go have a cold one and relax a bit bit.

as for being passive, i think thats why they are targetting people on the mountain. Its easy pickings, no one in sight to help out and people just hand over their gear. Like taking candy from a baby.

As far as i've seen TMNP is more concerned with their image than whats actually going on and would rather use their money in roping more tourists in.

I'm for the proactive approach. Make the muggers scared. The police aint gonna walk up the mountian so we need to make a TM police force or something. You could arm them with pepper spray paint balls and they could hunt the *$^@%ers down and make them regret it. Then hopefully they will be too scared to try the mountains again.

As for addressing the plight of the country in order to stop muggings on the mountain ... thats not gonna happen in any short amount of time or in any of our lifetimes. Sure we can work for a better future but its probably not gonna affect the safety of our areas in short space of time.

I don't know how many of you saw the TV news insert over the weekend featuring Mike Scott.

In the insert, the City of Cape Town responded as follows:
\"The City can only provide resourses based on reported instances of crime. To date (last Saturday) only 7 muggings over the entire Table Mountain chain had been reported to the police.\"

In other words the \"City's\" stats do not show this to be a problem at all.

Evidently reports in the press are not taken into account.

If we want the \"City\" to take the situation seriously, then ALL muggings MUST be reported to the police.

If we don't then we are simply whinging - and we all know that our minister of safety & security views whingers as unpatriotic and suggests that they all leave the country.

Don't want to sound negative but my opinion on the \"3 poles\" volunteer rangers is that what is preventing the rangers themselves from being mugged? They are not armed and really have no authority. The muggers are probably a lot fitter than the police and can simply outrun them. The only solution is for the relevant authorities is to pull their fingers out and do the job that that our taxes are paying them to do. (A picture of the average fat, unfit policeman with a cigarette hanging from his lips, comes to mind.)

micky wrote:I'm for the proactive approach. Make the muggers scared. The police aint gonna walk up the mountian so we need to make a TM police force or something. You could arm them with pepper spray paint balls and they could hunt the *$^@%ers down and make them regret it. Then hopefully they will be too scared to try the mountains again.

i agree with alex on this one, i cant see any police officer running up the mountain for anything ... in fact running at all. Secondly people dont really report crimes anymore because nothing really happens. Its only useful for an insurance claim.

So maybe its helps calculate crime stats or something but if the City of Cape Town or TMNP only believes the crime stats then its being ingnorant and lame! Its like saying rape in the country isn't a problem because of the stats or the crime situation is actually getting better because people arent reporting as much.

The slightly prophetic nature of my post notwithstanding, the ending was actually quite important. It seems there is a size limit on the forum posts so my post got cut in half. I've lost the other words but I ended the post with the story of my girlfriend who was attacked in Loop street. While it has nothing to do with climbing I think it illustrates the point of not submitting weakly. She was alone and had a HTC in her hand (the big windows PDA phones). She was \"confronted\" by an attacker trying to get the phone but she put up a fierce struggle knowing that there was a group of people on the corner of Pepper and Loop. She screamed. The group heard her scream and looked in her direction... when the attacker saw this he fled. There was no serious injury and no loss of property.

The idea of self defense classes is also a goone one. The Aikido sensei in Cape Town teaches a lethal Aikido with a strong focus on real life situations, if anyone is interested.

So more than one person has replied saying that pepper spray works like a bullet. I'm going to get myself a can. I reckon if one keeps your eyes and ears open, senses sharp, stay alert and keen, then you don't even need 1 second to spray down 3 attackers. It may sound silly but if you are a group of guys it makes sense to discuss some possible attack scenarios and how you will react sothat when (if (hopefully not)) it happens you will know how to react.

Another thought - has anyone ever considered laying a trap for these guys using bait? I wouldn't mind being bait... I can dress in cape storm gear, carry shiny binocs, a camera and expensive cellphone around my neck with lots of bling. Then some kind of panic button transmitter to alert the backup team who will rush in and arrest the attackers. On second thought it sounds a bit idealistic... might be hard to pull off.

In the news section it mentions two things about the TMNP park plans for safety which i dont get.

The first is the CCTV camera's, where exactly are they gonna put these? At the cable station and restaurant where there are no muggins anyway as far as i know. Or are they gonna run power to the cams all over the mountain? Does anyone have any stats on the effect the CCTV camera's have had on the CBD where you would assume they would be far easier to monitor and install?

Secondly they say that they cant arm the rangers. Surely they could give them some pepper spray guns and possibly some defence training. Also i dont think i've ever come accross a ranger whilst walking or climbing. I think the only time ive ever seen them apart from when paying to enter the park was the one time i was late leaving silvermine.

SANParks are talking about posting volunteer spotters at four locations on the mountain. The spotters would have binoculars or telescopes to spot the baddies...This was mentioned on Cape Talk this morning

just a thought...
imagine waking up one morning only to discover the cable way's cables have been stolen .. ala Telkom style .. maybe then Ramatlakane will admit there is a crisis?

Justin wrote:SANParks are talking about posting volunteer spotters at four locations on the mountain. The spotters would have binoculars or telescopes to spot the baddies...This was mentioned on Cape Talk this morning

A good way for us to get involved IMO, I will be there! Table Mountain Safety Action Group needs your eyes...